True Blood is back!!

I started the last post with a beauty note, and I'll do the same for this one. I finally have figured out the trick to having a manicure last longer than a couple days. Normally if I give myself a manicure, it only lasts a couple days, three at the most. I'm not about to pay to get my nails done at the salon every week just so I can get something that lasts. Anyways, it's nothing fancy, but I got to thinking about why when I used to get acrylic nails the polish lasted a couple weeks. Well, they buff the hell out of your nails before they even put on the nails, then buff the acrylics. Well, lo and behold, it's kept the polish from having any major chips for a week now. And let me just sing the praises of China Glaze. It's a couple bucks cheaper than OPI and I think it has a better selection of colors. How many shades of cherry red cremes can you come up with, OPI? Seriously? The color here is called Sexy Silhouette and it reminds me of the OPI color Kinky in Helsinki, which they sadly discontinued.

Anyways, my favorite show in the entire universe started it's last 3rd season last night. Yes, True Blood is finally back on the air. And before it even started airing, I read somewhere that it's been renewed for a 4th season already. (SPOILERS: a season of Eric not having a memory and being decidedly un-Eric will be great. That's at least if they keep that aspect of the 4th book.) I will admit that I'm not a huge fan of first couple episodes of the past seasons. But they are necessary to move forward the plot of the season. Last night, being the first, set up the basic plots. Sam is on the hunt to get to know his birth family. Eric and Queen Sophie-Anne need to sell a shitload of V via Lafayette to get the magister off their back. Tara is extremely depressed because Eggs is dead. Sookie enlists Jessica to try and find Bill (who's been kidnapped and taken to Mississippi). And we get a very brief introduction to the new group of supernatural creatures we get this season: werewolves. In the countless articles I've read about this season, I have some theories. I've read that the person who kidnaps Bill in the books isn't the one who did it in the show. So that means Lorena isn't the kidnapper. Whoever did, uses werewolves as lackeys and is based in Mississippi because I know we get introduced to King Russell. I hear we do find out who did it next week, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say that King Russell or his husband did it to get to Sookie, much like Queen Sophie-Anne did in the books. I also know that they are finally giving Pam a more recurring role. I love Pam. Aside from Eric, she's my favorite vampire. And the brief glimpse of the werewolves has made me happy. They are happily using real wolves. Let's do a side-by-side comparison.

This is a True Blood werewolf:








This is a Twilight werewolf:










One is on a movie budget and looks horrible. The other is on a TV budget. Yes, it's HBO, but it's still a smaller budget than a movie budget. I will say that the werewolves in Twilight are required to do a lot more than they need to do on True Blood. That's were CGI comes in handy, but couldn't they have made them a little more realistic?

Yes, I'm very anti-Twilight. It's horrible. The books were good. The movies are just simply awful.

In other news, another week also means another Doctor Who. It was a rather good episode. Nothing horribly memorable, but good. A friend and I thought at first the auto-pilot program was the Master. I am looking forward to what I'm sure is the first part of another 2-episode arc. The same friend has a theory that the crack in the universe is the bubble that the Doctor put Gallifrey and the other Timelords in, which is about to burst open and bring the Time Wars upon us again. Seeing as this is towards the end of this series, it makes a lot of sense, as these will be the final 2 episodes. It sets up a great new series. It also makes sense if you look back at the episodes with the Silurians ("I'm the last of my species." "No you're not. I'm the last of my species and I know how that sits in your heart.") and the Venice episode (Signora Calvierri guilting the Doctor with the extinction of her species from Saturnyne). They are amping up the guilt on the Doctor for the extinction of the Time Lords. She also made the brilliant realization that the TARDIS is getting slowly more pale. It had a nice amber glow towards the beginning and is now bleaching out. What this means, I'm sure we will find out.

And in World Cup news, the US surprisingly held it's own against England. Yes, my friends, I'm a Yank and I will always choose the US over England. I'm sure Green will never hear the end of it during the tournament and after when he returns home. I will say that those damn vuvuzela are extremely annoying. It sounds like a hive of angry bees in that stadium! I'm just glad I'm not there!

My Muse

I'm going to have a minor pop culture moment. Or a music snob moment. Look at it whichever way you want.

I know I bitch about this frequently to my friends and ocassionally as status updates on Facebook. Anyone who has known me for the past maybe 5 years or so knows I'm a Muse fan. I remember hearing "Stockholm Syndrome" and thinking that it was a really good song. Fast forward to 2006 when Black Holes and Revelations came out. By then, they had released a few more songs that they played on the radio in the US - "Time is Running Out" & "Hysteria" among them. I had really liked all the singles they put out from Absolution. The first couple singles off BH&R were amazing, then I was hit with pure sonic bliss otherwise known as "Knights of Cydonia." I was hooked from then on. I went back and downloaded Showbiz, Origin of Symmetry and completed Absolution. I've recently finished tracking down all their old singles for the B-sides. Long story short, I now have a near-complete Muse discography.

Hell, I drove 16 hours roundtrip last weekend to see them in Atlanta. Honestly, I'd drive all night if I had to to see them. If I could afford it, I'd follow them on their entire North America tour and go to Coachella next month just for them (OK, maybe Muse, Thom Yorke, Them Crooked Vultures and MGMT. Damn...why aren't I going to that?)

To the point of this rant.

I hate Twilight for 2 major reasons. #1: The way the books ended was a gigantic cop-out. I lost all my respect for Stephenie Meyer as an author and the books as a whole after I finished reading Breaking Dawn. Are you really going to end the series you just spent 4 books setting up with a verbal discussion and have everyone live happily ever after? Really? They're fucking vampires. Have some blood and guts, for Christ's sake. Even Harry Potter, which is aimed at a younger audience, had the courage to kill off a few of beloved characters. And that was even before the 7th book even started. #2: If it weren't for Twilight, Muse would not be anywhere as near as popular as they are right now. I am in no way accusing them of selling out. They were selling out concerts in coliseums in Europe long before I had ever heard of them. I just feel that their music is above the average Twi-hard's head. I don't think any other band they would typically listen to would have references to the Chaos Theory ("Butterflies and Hurricanes"), not to mention a song named after a psychological condition. OK, kiddies. No cheating. What is Stockholm Syndrome? Most people who say they like Muse only like them because of Twilight and I'm sure if I put them on the spot and asked them to name one song that isn't on the soundtrack, BH&R or The Resistance, they wouldn't know. Name me the B-side for Uno. Hell, name one album that came out before BH&R. And even if you can name me those things, can you honestly tell me you knew who they were before Twilight? Their music is just so out there lyrically, I don't know how it inspired Stephenie Meyer to write a vampire love story. Do you really think "Starlight" is a love song about another person? I'm sure your're wondering "But what about 'I Belong to You?'" It's a song they re-did so they could include it on the New Moon soundtrack since they wanted exclusivity. And I'll give you that it's pretty much a love song, but it's on an album that is extremely political. Besides, it was released in 2009, after the books were done being published.

Ugh. I'm done. I just needed to get all that out in the open. I am in no way letting my bias against Twilight put a damper on my love affair with Muse.

You may now return to your regularly scheduled programming.